WHAT?! No higher frame rates? Not even 60fps? Come on now. Don't get me wrong, you all are killing it and in one fell swoop today, you've changed the game completely (again). But NO higher frame rates? That is a head scratcher, right there! It makes no sense whatsoever. When you update to higher frame rates, you'll wipe RED right off the map.

Does anyone know if Blackmagic is or will be taking preorders for this new camera? Or if there is a list that will notify them when preorders are available?

wildhorsesfilm: Blackmagic also just announced a 4K Cinema Camera with Global Shutter that is 16 times cheaper than the Sony F65, which is one of the only other 4K cameras I'm aware of with Global Shutter

diesel_film: agreed. it is that shame that it will not shoot 60fps, especially for action or ariel shots, but considering this is truly the first cinema camera in a mirrorless style NEX like body able to shoot 220Mpbs ProRes footage with a matched sensor and a dynamic range equal to or better than a DSLR, it's hard to nit pick. Especially considering included pro level level features like a clean HDMI output, LANC control and jacks for both headphone monitoring and an external mic input, which I assume won't be plagued with the the despicable AGC found on Canon DSLRs. These things considered, this is an incredible announcement.

B&H are certainly taking pre-orders, I just placed an order myself. RAW video will make a great addition to my timelapse films.

Yes I agree with posts here that it's a shame it doesn't do slow motion, or at least 60fps, but everything comes at a price. Even 60fps would require double the bandwidth through chips, and even CF cards aren't up to that speed yet. So you'd need an SSD drive, which bumps up the cost and requires a much bigger physical size.

I'm sure in a few years time we'll have very affordable 4K slow motion cameras with global shutters, but in the meantime, to have this for under $1,000 is incredible.

I do wonder what speed SD card you need for RAW though? No more than 90 MB/s we would hope

I'd expect low light performance to be very good, but it's hard to tell without one more spec being announced; pixel micron size.

If it's a genuine 1920 x 1080 sensor then the individual pixels would actually be about the same size as those on a full 35mm frame 20 megapixel sensor, or many times bigger than those on a 4/3 sensor! If that's the case, it will have fantastic low light performance. That was in fact the case with last year's 2.5k cinema camera, but this camera uses a completely different sensor.

The sensor size is quite small (leading to a 3x crop factor!) but hopefully the pixels are big. To compare, the sensor (12.48mm x 7.02mm) is roughly:

1/10th the size of a full 35mm frame1/4th the size of an APS-C frame1/2 the size of a 4/3 frame

Unfortunately the extremely high crop factor on the Blackmagic Pocket Camera might be a serious issue for anybody that requires a wide angle focal length, given the current available mFT lenses.

This camera has a Super 16 sensor that's 12.48mm wide. That's around half the width of the APS-C sensor found in most DSLRs. If an APS-C sensor has crop factor of ~1.5x, this Blackmagic Pocket Camera would have a crop factor of ~3x. A 16mm lens with a 3x crop factor would be equivalent to nifty fifty on a full frame camera. You would then need an an 8mm mFT lens to get an focal length equivalent to a 16mm used on an APS-C sensor, unfortunately the middle quarter of an 8mm fisheye would have serious distortion. The 12mm M.Zeiko is one of the only lenses I can think of that might work as a wide angle on Blackmagic's new Pocket Camera since it would be close to 24mm APS-C or 35mm Full Frame while having fairly low distortion.

For a moment, Blackmagic's Pocket Cinema Camera looked to be the ultimate camera for ariel cinematography from a multicopter. So unfortunate that is has a sensor completely mismatched to the lens system that's employed with regards to viable wide angle lenses

Hopefully someone will tell me that I'm way off base here.

Edit: I forgot about c-mount lenses and how perfectly matched they should be to this sensor. I retract my previous concerns for lack of wide angle lesnes. C-mount options should cover this nicely. This camera looks incredible.

Last edited by featherodd on Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

Extreme crop indeed. I put this together from http://www.abelcine.com/fov/ showing the crops compared to a normal 17mm lens on a full frame DSLR. The pocket cinema camera is on the left, the 2.5k model in the middle and the upcoming 4k model on the right.

Does anyone know of an adapter for a 3/4 ENG lens that may work with this camera? I am guessing It would need to be a powered adapter as I doubt the camera would power the lens? Only I have some pretty useful ENG Canon and Fujinon Lenses looking for a new lease of life and a possible use for a fleet of these cameras?

I just returned from my storage with a heavy box of 16mm stuff, have a Micro 4/3 to C-Mount adapter shipping, and can't wait to test the lot on my B&H pre-ordered Pocket Cinema Camera. So glad having not chucked all that gear. I have some good, old superspeeds, Zeiss/Angenieux zooms, and some exotic oddballs from the days of my filmmaking, flatbed and Model 20 editing yesteryear. I beat the offerings on Ebay, which I gazed upon earlier today. Super 16 lenses will deliver the pantheon of wide angle to telephoto so many whine about concerning this new camera. You just have to be olde enough to have them in stock. Olde? The potential of this camera makes you feel young again. I'm even dusting off my jibs and sliders, as a hankering to produce has returned.

From B&H I also ordered the rather expensive MTF Services Ltd. Nikkor (all types, aperture ring or not) to Micro 4/3 adapter, and cannot wait to check the enhanced telephoto effects my fast supertelephotos will offer. Big fluid head for the stability. Finally, I will have a decent source for the HyperDeck Shuttle, now there's a Crucial 960GB SSD for under $600. That's quite a few hundreds of minutes of ProRes HQ 422 10 bit at film log color space. My olde Panavision 12 volt battery boxes will have a new life too, feeding this stuff.

I just have to finish my DIT box, which will have Davinci Running to a Sony High Color OLED Production Monitor, massive Thunderbolt storage and replication, and offline editorial. All in a big old Panavision camera box on wheels. We plan on having a digital equivalent of a lab's adjusted, so called "one light" via stored setups, and will likely send editable stuff to my edit bays from the field.

As to ProRes HQ 1080p, I have had the occasion to use it for 3D and did make a 3D DCP of it and had it projected in a digital 3D theater. It was stunning without any "sparkly" bit error issues, which was the problem with RED's codec in the past, though I think they've worked that out by now. 1080p digitally projected has been seriously tested against 35mm release print. Digital won in overall quality. Lab generations to the point of standard wide release printing just can't match the near to master quality of projected digital in terms of useful resolution and quality.

As to DNxHD, I can live without it with ProRes HQ and compressed RAW (when it's available) to ProRes 4444 (provided by DaVinci.) Avid standards are too closed minded, like the company, which proved less than agile once Final Cut arrived. Final Cut X muddied the waters, but is finally getting close to being a good solution these days, if only for the independents. For some things, it shaves DAYS off a Final Cut 7 schedule, as in, a once tough, 4 day edit in 7 is a breezy one day edit in X.

All Things Behind the Camera are my Art,Baking and Making Dessert, my Passion.

I just ordered mine thru b&h, is July 25th the set date for shipping?? And will there be some pocket cinema sample footage on your main page? Chose this cam over the Sony a77. Having a difficult time choosing the perfect first lens for it. Recommendations please. Thanks

PhotoArtsLA wrote:I just returned from my storage with a heavy box of 16mm stuff, have a Micro 4/3 to C-Mount adapter shipping, and can't wait to test the lot on my B&H pre-ordered Pocket Cinema Camera. So glad having not chucked all that gear. I have some good, old superspeeds, Zeiss/Angenieux zooms, and some exotic oddballs from the days of my filmmaking, flatbed and Model 20 editing yesteryear. I beat the offerings on Ebay, which I gazed upon earlier today. Super 16 lenses will deliver the pantheon of wide angle to telephoto so many whine about concerning this new camera. You just have to be olde enough to have them in stock. Olde? The potential of this camera makes you feel young again. I'm even dusting off my jibs and sliders, as a hankering to produce has returned. .

Preordered mine.This will be great. Using all my existing mFT lenses and getting 13 stops.For low light I'll compare with and probably have to keep the GH2+GH1.The 12V for power+charging the battery is so cool since I have 12V/9V+2x5V(USB) on my battery pack.So I can charge the camera on the shoulder rig and it will be fully charged when I take it off the quick release to go handheld.

LANC:Does anyone know what commands the camera supports and that notifications it sends?I'm planning to program an Atmel to speak the (already reverse engeneered) serial protocol of the Zoom H4n and either start the audio recording when the camera starts or start camera and audio in sync.Could also be cool do so this by radio and control it as a remote B-camera including focusor to have controls for start/stop, focus, aperture on the grip of my shoulder rig or steadycam.

DNG:I hope the lossless compressed DNG format still works with Adobe Lightroom because Resolve doesn't run on my Macbook (13" intel graphic because it needs to fit the tiny tables in highspeed trains).=> aparently yes

Physical dimensions:Does anyone have CAD drawings or detailed meassurements?I'm thinking of designing and CNC machining/3D printing some rigging parts. (form-fitting cage for mounting and protection, custom mounts originally designed for GoPros,...)May make it a short run and sell some to interested parties.

Battery:What nikon battery is the one used by this camera?=>Aparently a "Nikon EN-EL20".=>29-35eur. 50eur in your next door electronics shop., <13eur for remakes.=>13eur for a charger.=>7,4V, 1020mAh=>7,5Wh

Autofocus:Can anyone confirm that the camera has a 1:1 crop and peaking for manual focusing but no autofocus whatsoever?

Last edited by MarcusWolschon on Thu Apr 18, 2013 5:46 am, edited 2 times in total.

I really like what you guys and girls are doing at Black magic,your cam is well priced and has all the features I will need.The crop factor for me is the deal breaker though,around 3x (full frame) it is to much for me.

I`m sure this camera will appeal to many people,and will be a great success.

Keep the good gear coming BM,I`ll be keenly watching what else you come up with.

Made a first draft of the cage I'm planning to do for the Pocket Cinema Camera (not only for mounting points but also to protect the camera when used as an action- or crash cam. It's cheap, small and lightweight after all despite the limited fps range.

Hi,I'm a production sound mixer, but as soon as these were announced I pre-ordered boththe 4K and the pocket camera.This might sound like a silly request and other than on this forum I'm not sure where to post itbut is there any possibility of making the pocket camera able to take STILL photos?

I currently own a GH2 and will be getting rid of it when the pocket cam arrives but that leavesme without any decent still photo solution that I can use my prime lenses on.

I think a lot of people would find this helpful, even to take quick reference pictures for whoever on set...etc.

I'd love to hear either way if this is feasible or impossible and why.

Rippie wrote:Hi,I'm a production sound mixer, but as soon as these were announced I pre-ordered boththe 4K and the pocket camera.This might sound like a silly request and other than on this forum I'm not sure where to post itbut is there any possibility of making the pocket camera able to take STILL photos?

I currently own a GH2 and will be getting rid of it when the pocket cam arrives but that leavesme without any decent still photo solution that I can use my prime lenses on.

I think a lot of people would find this helpful, even to take quick reference pictures for whoever on set...etc.

I'd love to hear either way if this is feasible or impossible and why.

I'd like the BMPCC to have at least one programmable dial, say for aperture control and or focusing, simply because buttons aren't the funniest things to hit and there are mFT lenses with no aperture ring and focus ring.

axiom wrote:I'd like the BMPCC to have at least one programmable dial, say for aperture control and or focusing, simply because buttons aren't the funniest things to hit and there are mFT lenses with no aperture ring and focus ring.

Fantastic looking camera and technology ! Seems like it possesses really great features...

I'm wondering if there are any plans to post Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera footage online before the announced delivery date in July... Footage to view, compare and / or download would really be helpful in evaluating the camera's produced images... It's sort of essential I believe... I looked everywhere on the Web and no signs of footage whatsoever...

Also, I was wondering if there was any chance of a firmware update that would enable onscreen audio meters whilst recording ? That would really be an important element for the camera to truly work on it's own (like for a one-man crew on a doc, for example).

I'm wondering if there are any plans to post Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera footage online before the announced delivery date in July... Footage to view, compare and / or download would really be helpful in evaluating the camera's produced images... It's sort of essential I believe... I looked everywhere on the Web and no signs of footage whatsoever...

Also, I was wondering if there was any chance of a firmware update that would enable onscreen audio meters whilst recording ? That would really be an important element for the camera to truly work on it's own (like for a one-man crew on a doc, for example).

Thanks for anyone's help and info.

Thank you! We don't have any footage to share yet, but I'm sure there will be footage online prior to shipping.

I'm wondering if there are any plans to post Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera footage online before the announced delivery date in July... Footage to view, compare and / or download would really be helpful in evaluating the camera's produced images... It's sort of essential I believe... I looked everywhere on the Web and no signs of footage whatsoever...

Also, I was wondering if there was any chance of a firmware update that would enable onscreen audio meters whilst recording ? That would really be an important element for the camera to truly work on it's own (like for a one-man crew on a doc, for example).

Thanks for anyone's help and info.

Thank you! We don't have any footage to share yet, but I'm sure there will be footage online prior to shipping.

Thanks for your quick reply ! Really appreciated... And how could one be informed when Pocket Camera footage does come out ?

I'm wondering if there are any plans to post Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera footage online before the announced delivery date in July... Footage to view, compare and / or download would really be helpful in evaluating the camera's produced images... It's sort of essential I believe... I looked everywhere on the Web and no signs of footage whatsoever...

Also, I was wondering if there was any chance of a firmware update that would enable onscreen audio meters whilst recording ? That would really be an important element for the camera to truly work on it's own (like for a one-man crew on a doc, for example).

Thanks for anyone's help and info.

Thank you! We don't have any footage to share yet, but I'm sure there will be footage online prior to shipping.

Thanks for your quick reply ! Really appreciated... And how could one be informed when Pocket Camera footage does come out ?

We don't really have an official notification system, but it will definitely be posted to the Cinematography forum. Possibly as a sticky thread.

MarcusWolschon wrote:It doesn't already show audio levels, clipping or a warning if the audio is silent?

This is what I read from EOSHD.com :

"A new Super 16mm CMOS sensor should help avoid supply issues – it isn’t the same chip as the trouble BMCC used. Camera seems well advanced in development though a few basic things like audio-meters still missing."

axiom wrote:I'd like the BMPCC to have at least one programmable dial, say for aperture control and or focusing, simply because buttons aren't the funniest things to hit and there are mFT lenses with no aperture ring and focus ring.

In fact, it would be better if the on/off switch is a lever instead of a button.

michibase wrote:Is there the chance that this camera will be available with 50 frames as well?

According to Blackmagic at NAB 2013, it would be impossible due to sensor overheat issue. However they promise a true super 16 digital film look out of pocket camera with raw CinemaDNG files at 27.5 MB/s.

michibase wrote:Is there the chance that this camera will be available with 50 frames as well?

According to Blackmagic at NAB 2013, it would be impossible due to sensor overheat issue. However they promise a true super 16 digital film look out of pocket camera with raw CinemaDNG files at 27.5 MB/s.

michibase wrote:Is there the chance that this camera will be available with 50 frames as well?

According to Blackmagic at NAB 2013, it would be impossible due to sensor overheat issue. However they promise a true super 16 digital film look out of pocket camera with raw CinemaDNG files at 27.5 MB/s.

I can't wait to see any samples out of this exciting camera.

Check out the first footage out of "Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera":

I was just asking to see if the camera is usable for sport action footage. We use cameras for wingsuit filming and this would be an ideal camera for high quality footage. But because everthing in our sport goes really, really fast, high frame rates are needed.

We are in the market for a new camera for LineCam Productions. Not always, but we often shoot action sports or activities with quick and fast movement. I have a couple questions about the new Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera. Is it capable of autofocusing, if not will it be made available in the future? Will wireless remote control ever be an option for the BMPCC?Thank You, we look forward to your response.

Nick BraunOwner / R&DLineCam Systems LLCLineCam Productions

LineCam Systems® is the leading innovator in cable-assisted media capture. We design and manufacture state of the art video and photo equipment that is compact, lightweight and portable.